Emmerdale star Gabrielle Dowling reacts to real-life brother’s soap exit: ‘It will never be the same again’

Emmerdale’s Gabrielle Dowling has paid tribute to co-star and real-life brother Sebastian Dowling following his exit from the ITV soap.

Gabrielle and Sebastian have played twins Cathy and Heath Hope for 17 years.

At the start of this week, however, things changed dramatically when Heath died in a car crash.

Heath, Cathy and Angelica (Rebecca Bakes) decided to joyride with the intention of getting to Hotten for a New Year party – but it ended catastrophically when they crashed into a wall.

The stars are siblings in real life

When Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) and Wendy (Susan Cookson) arrived, they found a bloodied Angelica and Cathy out of the car, but Heath was trapped inside.

Heath was pulled out of the vehicle but as Wendy desperately attempted CPR, realisation hit that the lad wasn’t going to survive.

The death marked an end to Sebastian’s time in the show and his journey working alongside Gabrielle for so long.

In the aftermath of the departure, Gabrielle has posted a sweet message on her Instagram Stories about her brother.

Alongside a variety of images from Gabrielle and Sebastian’s time on the show together, she wrote: ’17 years with my brother by my side on set.

‘Learning lines and having fun. It will never be the same again but I know you will thrive in whatever you decide to do next’.

After his final scenes aired, Sebastian also posted on Instagram and said: ‘Thanks to everyone @emmerdale for such a fun time filming over the 17 years ❤️.’

Sebastian’s former co-stars weighed in to show their love for the star with actress Amelia Flanagan (April Windsor) writing: ‘Good luck with everything will miss you ❤️.’

In the aftermath of this storyline, Cathy told a police officer that it had been her idea to take the car into town. She also said she’d learned to drive while she was staying with her brother Scott in the Lake District, on a farm track.

But, crucially, although she drove the car away from the village she insisted she hadn’t been driving when the crash happened. She said Angelica had.

But will Angelica admit the truth if she was behind the wheel?